


Blue Eyes and Warm Smiles

by Stephen_Holmes



Category: Fake News RPF, Real News RPF, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (TV)
Genre: Friendship/Love, M/M, THIS IS STEWBERT PEOPLE!, Unrequited Love, one-sided, stewbert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-10
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-23 08:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9647282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stephen_Holmes/pseuds/Stephen_Holmes
Summary: Anderson Cooper first met Stephen Colbert on the set of The Colbert Report. He never thought the dark haired man would make such an impact on his life.A tale of love and heartbreak and unrequited feelings. A tale of three men.





	

The first time Anderson Cooper met Stephen Colbert was minutes before the other man had to start taping. They only got a few words in- basic pleasantries, a warning from Stephen about the terribly ignorant character he played and a request to not get offended. Anderson had smiled and agreed, vaguely noting that the polite smile he had garnered in reply was rather handsome. Then the moment was over, and Stephen Colbert stepped onto stage.

It was halfway through his bit in the show- at the exact moment he made Stephen genuinely grin, that Anderson acknowledged that he was rather taken by the charming man interviewing him. Stephen’s character was adorably obnoxious yes, but Anderson had far too much experience dealing with people who pretended to be someone they weren’t and he knew exactly how to spot and analyze the cracks in their persona.

The cracks in Stephen’s mask gave Anderson a glimpse at a warm and intelligent human being and inexplicably, he wanted to get to know that man better. The show ended, and after taping his outro, Stephen met up with him again and thanked him for coming. Anderson waved him off and quietly noticed the smile he got this time was a lot more genuine than the one he was greeted with.

He returned home that night, intent upon shoving Stephen Colbert and his bewitching smiles out of his head. He had just landed his own show, he needed to focus on that, not on a man who he had interacted with for a grand total of twenty minutes and who may not even be gay. But as he laid down next to the warm body of his current boyfriend and stared up at his ceiling, Stephen Colbert’s laughter echoed in his mind and his smile swam before his eyes. Groaning silently, he punched his pillow and shut his eyes and dreamt of warm smiles and strong hands and woke up wondering when he had observed Stephen’s hands in such detail.

 

 

 

The months passed and Anderson found himself drowning in work. Occasionally he’d watch The Colbert Report and laugh at whichever poor fool Stephen had decided to target. Sometimes, they even made time to have lunch together. Slowly they struck up a close friendship based on the genuine admiration and respect they had for each other. Then of course, the monumental correspondent’s dinner happened and Anderson found himself stuck between applauding the man and getting him a fucking Nobel prize, or shaking the man and screaming at him for provoking the most powerful man in the planet. Needless to say, when he covered it, he found himself uncomfortably tense as he struggled not to show any outward emotional response. He drove down to Stephen’s studio that night to meet the reckless man, and all his resolve to be level-headed and non-judgmental went out the window when Stephen greeted him with a carefree grin and a laughed out, “So did you like my show at the White House?”

Before Anderson could stop himself, he found himself shouting at Stephen’s stunned face for being so stupid and reckless and _dear god what was he thinking?! This was the most powerful man in the goddamned country!!_ Once he finally tired himself out he dropped his head into his hands, and waited for Stephen to kick him out. Thus he was very surprised when Stephen drew him into a hug and whispered an apology for worrying him into his ear. Anderson snorted into the warm jacket in front of him- of course Stephen wouldn’t apologize for what he did, no he apologized for _worrying_ him. Sighing exasperatedly, he nevertheless wrapped his arms around the lean body in front of him and enjoyed being surrounded by Stephen’s strong arms and his warm, inviting scent and the pointy chin on top of his head.

The moment was broken when the door to Stephen’s office opened and another man Anderson knew quite well and liked, walked in.

“Stephen! Great show buddy!!” Jon Stewart called out, practically skipping into Stephen’s office, smiling like a lunatic.

“Hey Jon!!” Stephen laughed from somewhere above Anderson’s head and though Stephen remained oblivious, Anderson saw the momentary stiffness that crept into Jon’s smile when he saw the two of them in their embrace. They separated and Anderson felt his breath catch in his throat when he saw the smile Stephen had for Jon. He had thought himself one of the privileged ones, allowed to see the real Stephen Colbert and his warmth and infectious joy, but the smile Stephen had on right now, made every single one he’d directed at Anderson pale in comparison. He felt an unexpected sting of betrayal- Stephen had held out on him all these days, because the smile Jon got was pure light and joy. He swallowed when Stephen turned to him after greeting Jon, with the same smile on his face and came to a heartbreaking realization.

Stephen didn’t realize that his face lit up like a thousand suns when he saw Jon.

More importantly, he didn’t realize it didn’t light up quite the same way when he saw Anderson.

Stephen didn’t know that right now, as he smiled at him with a brilliant smile that _Jon Stewart_ had summoned, he was shattering Anderson’s heart, a heart that Anderson himself hadn’t known he’d lost to Stephen. Until Stephen had unknowingly broken it.

He smiled back at Stephen shakily, and watched as concern welled up in Stephen’s dark brown eyes.

“Anderson I'm really sorry it bothered you so much, but honestly someone had to say it.” The sincere honesty in Stephen’s voice melted whatever remained of Anderson’s heart and it took him a moment to recall what Stephen was talking about.

The dinner. Right.

“Hey it’s okay. Just – promise me you won’t do anything stupid for a bit now. I’d hate for you to go to jail for streaking through fifth avenue.” Anderson felt absolutely pathetic for that terrible joke but frankly, he was pretty damn proud that he hadn’t burst into tears yet.

However terrible it was, the joke seemed to work and Anderson saw Stephen’s eyes light up with humor and mischief, a smirk tugging at his lips and _goddamnit when would his heart stop skipping a beat because of Stephen fucking Colbert_?!

“Well, you have to admit that would be one gorgeous story to cover.” Stephen winked and Anderson felt himself burst out into laughter- terribly ugly giggles that he had thought would forever put off the people around him, till Stephen heard him laugh the first time and seen how self-conscious Anderson was about his laugh and told him he sounded beautiful. Anderson swallowed, a smile still on his lips as he stared at the tall, dark haired man in front of him, uncomfortably aware of Jon Stewart’s silent presence in the room and the heavy blue-eyed gaze he could practically feel through his shirt.

He had to get out of here.

“I have to leave.” He murmured, feeling a tiny piece of himself rejoice in how Stephen’s face fell at the prospect.

“Why? Jon just got here! We could go get some drinks?” Stephen offered and Anderson shook his head, smiling.

“Some of us have work to do Colbert.”

Stephen mock pouted and Anderson squashed the little voice in his head that told him to lean in and kiss those soft lips, to show Jon Stewart that Stephen was not his, that Stephen would be so loved by Anderson, if he only got the chance.

“Bye Stephen,” Anderson said, picking up his jacket and shaking Stephen’s ( _warm, safe_ ) hand. He nodded to Jon on his way out, taking in the stiff shoulders and the dark look in Jon’s eyes that his smile didn’t manage to completely mask.

As he shut the door to Stephen’s office, he watched Jon walk up to Stephen and wondered how he managed to remain standing in the light of Stephen’s glorious smile. Anderson was certain that had that particular beam of light and affection been directed at him he would have probably dropped to his knees.

 

He made it to his car before he broke down completely.

He wanted to hate Stephen. Hate him for not loving Anderson back, hate him for so clearly being in love with Jon. But how could he? How could he hate a man so clearly oblivious to his own feelings? How could he hate a man who didn’t realize that two of his closest friends were in love with him?

He tried hating Jon too, and failed miserably. His heart, evidently, revolted against hating anything or anyone that made Stephen so wonderfully happy. The man deserved every happiness in the world.

He drove back home with the music blasting, trying not to think of the cold, silent house that awaited him.

 

 

 

A week later, Jon Stewart came to Anderson’s office.

“Jon!” Anderson started in surprise, “I wasn’t expecting a visit.”

Jon said nothing, just walked into Anderson’s office with that shuffling gate of his, looking around, not meeting Anderson’s gaze.

“Yeah. I uhh wanted to talk to you,” Jon finally replied seemingly forcing himself to look at Anderson. Whatever he saw, made his face twitch uncomfortably before he smoothed it out.

“Okay, sure. Have a seat.” Anderson said slightly confused.

Nodding his thanks, Jon sat down across Anderson and swallowed.

“So,” Jon began and then stopped.

“So?” Anderson asked, a niggling feeling at the pit of his gut giving him an inkling of where this was going.

“You’re in love with Stephen.” Somewhere, in the last two seconds, Jon Stewart had found his courage and the blue eyes gazing calmly at Anderson now showed no signs of the nerves that had clearly plagued Jon mere moments ago.

Meanwhile, Jon’s words slammed into Anderson with the force of a sledgehammer and he rocked back in his chair, taking a deep breath to steady himself. He had done his best to not think about the heart-wrenching realization he had come upon in Stephen’s office and he’d thought that he had done a good job of shoving it out of his mind. Yes, his heart still skipped a beat whenever someone mentioned Stephen, and he found himself smiling slightly whenever he thought of the dark haired man, and if he TiVo-ed The Colbert report he couldn’t be blamed for it right? But overall he was doing well. He hadn’t talked about it to anyone, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to start now, and certainly not with Jon Stewart.

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.” Anderson replied frostily.

“Look – I'm not going to tell him. I just- I just need to know okay? Do you love him?” Jon had a note of desperation and impatience in his voice.

Anderson swallowed. It would be so easy to lie now and deny it, thus burying any chance of anybody ever finding out. But a not-so insignificant part of him wanted Jon to know that he wasn’t the only one in love with Stephen.

Before he could stop himself, he replied, “Yes.”

For a moment the answer just hung in the silence between them, and Anderson watched with a strange kind of fascination as Jon’s blue eyes – _Anderson had blue eyes too, but why did Stephen only have eyes for Jon’s?_ – shut before they opened again, a painful resolve in them.

“O-Okay then,” his voice was hoarse. “Okay. I want you to know Anderson, that if you hurt him, I will personally rip you apart. Do you understand me?”

Wait- What?

“What?!” Anderson spluttered. What the hell was Jon going on about?

“I know you aren’t dating right now, but we both know it’s only a matter of time. All I'm saying – and I mean this very seriously Anderson so don’t dismiss this – all I'm saying is that if you break his heart, I will destroy you.”

Did Jon really think that Anderson stood a chance as long as Jon bloody Stewart existed? For a moment the notion was tempting – here Jon sat, perfectly willing to bow out and let Anderson have Stephen. All Anderson had to do was keep his mouth shut.

The memory of Stephen’s smile swam before his eyes – the one Jon had conjured by simply walking into the room – and he realized that nothing on earth could tempt him to take that joy away from Stephen.

Not even his own happiness.

 “Shut up Jon.” Anderson snapped, and Jon shut up, eyes wide.

“Are you really this blind? Or have you just come here to taunt me?” the fragile grasp he’d had over his emotions had finally snapped and Jon Stewart was going to bear the brunt of it. 

Too damn bad.

“Wh-What? I don’t understand.” Jon spluttered.

“Stephen and I would never stand a chance. Not for as long as he had you anywhere in the same solar system as him. So no, I do not need your ‘hurt him and die’ speech because I will not pursue a relationship with him.”

“But you love him!” Jon cried outraged.

“And he loves you. Even if he doesn’t know it.” There was a finality to the words that made a heavy weight drop to the pit of his stomach.

“That’s ridiculous. You’re younger, more handsome, a far better match for him than me. I'm broken goods, I have issues and Stephen needs someone who’ll be there for him not someone who’s so clearly damaged.” Jon was clearly agitated, his frustrated hands running though his graying hair.

“You’re right.” Anderson said grimly and Jon looked up at him nonplussed. “But have you seen the way he smiles at you?”

At Jon’s completely bewildered look he elaborated, mentally wondering when he’d opened a couple’s therapy center.

“Stephen has the warmest smile I’ve seen. But when he looks at you, when he smiles at you, it’s like-” he paused, swallowing to wet his suddenly dry mouth. “It’s like all of a sudden you’re the only thing that matters. Like you are the sole reason for every happy thing in his life, and the only thing he can imagine doing for the rest of his life is making you laugh and doing everything he possibly can to make you happy. He loves you the way people love each other in fairy tales, so completely and unconditionally, that you could probably shoot him in the face and his last words would be ‘I love you’.”

Somewhere during his monologue, his voice had cracked.

“So, no. Don’t you dare walk away from him or tell me to date him because if you do, I won’t say no again. And you know what? He’ll probably make me happier than anyone else possibly can. But I will never be that person for him and he won’t ever say a word about it. Because even then he’ll want what’s best for you, and he’ll accept that it isn’t him. You may be damaged and old but he still loves you, more than he could ever love me, Jon.”

By the end of his tirade, Anderson was panting and his heart was hurting something awful. Across him, Jon’s head had dropped into his hands and a wretched silence pervaded the room.

“I love him.” Jon murmured simply, as if those three words explained everything.

In a way, they did.

“I know.” Anderson replied, shutting his eyes. Behind his eyelids, he saw once again, Stephen’s brilliant smile and his sparkling eyes as he saw Jon and tried to convince himself that he’d done the right thing.

 After all Stephen would never look at him that way.

The silence in the office lay undisturbed.

 

 

 

He saw them again, three months later and one look at Stephen and Jon had him ducking behind the nearest door he found. ‘Curiosity ought to be made a sin’, he thought as he slowly moved to look at them again. Then again, he wasn’t religious.

He needn’t have bothered with the stealth. Stephen and Jon were so completely engrossed in each other that a bomb could have gone off and they still wouldn’t notice.

Stephen looked. . . happy. He was wearing one of his faded blue jeans with a flannel shirt that was probably as soft as if looked. He was grinning at Jon, his fingers interlaced with Jon’s as he carried numerous shopping bags in his other hand.

Jon on the other hand, was clearly complaining about something as Stephen stared at him fondly. Judging by the wild gestures, Anderson was pretty sure Jon was unhappy about Stephen carrying all the bags.

He watched as Jon’s complaining reached a crescendo and Stephen finally sighed exasperatedly as he tugged Jon in and kissed him, cutting off what seemed to be a very vehement protest of ‘I am NOT a girl!!”

They separated after what seemed like a couple of hours to Anderson. Jon had a dazed look on his face and Stephen was grinning like a maniac and for the first time in his considerably privileged life, Anderson felt pure envy.

Then as he watched them stroll down the street, hands entwined and sickeningly in love, he realized that he wouldn’t have ever wanted to come between them.

 

 

 

Stephen told him about Jon a week later during lunch and Anderson was very proud that his voice didn’t shake when he told Stephen he was happy for them. Jon joined them halfway through the lunch after Anderson quietly told him to shut up and sit down. There had been an awareness in Jon’s eyes that had made him uncomfortable, but as they reached dessert, they were all back to being more or less comfortable with each other. Well Jon and him. Stephen remained as always- oblivious.

As they were leaving, Stephen made a comment about Anderson’s ice-blue ‘Legolas’ eyes and before he could stop himself Anderson found himself asking Stephen, “Well what do you think about Jon’s eyes? They’re blue too.”

Jon stiffened next to Stephen and Anderson mentally kicked himself.

Stephen however didn’t mind.

“They are, but it’s a completely different shade. Yours are clear and sharp like ice, his are darker, and they have all these different shades in them. Jon’s eyes are like the sky, just after sunset, when it’s all these crazy shades of blue that you could spend the rest of your life figuring out.”

There was a moment of silence before Jon bumped Stephen’s shoulder and smiled. “No wonder you’re such a great writer. You’re brilliant at coming up with bullshit.” And Stephen laughed.

Watching them Anderson smiled, and tried to ignore the part of his brain that suddenly wished he hadn’t asked Stephen.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Hope you liked it! Please leave a comment


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